The Christmas Covenant...

Today is Christmas Eve and my kids are playing while the rain falls causing the humidity to hang in the air like a soggy blanket.  In the background I am listening to "The First Noel" and my thoughts are brought back to what all happened on that very first noel. Maybe its because my life the past few years has shattered the worldview I once had. Maybe its because the Lord has revealed himself to me in a new way. Or maybe its a combination of the two...but whatever it is, the Word of God came alive to me in a new way this Christmas than ever before...More than likely this is not new to many others, but for me, my perception of God has been deepened in a new and beautiful way and I was encouraged to share it, so hesitantly, I will...

A few Sundays ago I was sitting in church listening to my pastor talk about Joseph. He talked about Joseph and highlighted all the reasons that I already love Joseph...he was a man of action and not of words...he wasn't afraid to obey...he lived a life of humility and character...and all of these reasons caused his life to have an eternal impact. Far too often we gloss over Joseph; we admire him for his willingness to stand by Mary and commend him for his faithfulness to obey the angel and then we let him slip off into the background of the Nativity...
But what if there is more?
What if Joseph was more than a man willing to make an honest woman of Mary?
Old Testament prophecy and New Testament documentation all collided for me one Sunday afternoon and it was like I was seeing the miracle of Jesus' birth in a new way.

Jeremiah prophesied, "'The days are coming,' says the Lord, 'when I will raise up a good descendant in David's family. This descendant will be a king who will rule in a wise way. And he will do what is fair and right in the land. In his time Judah will be saved. Israel will live in safety. This will be his name: The Lord is Righteous.'" (Jeremiah 23:5-8)

The Lord promised Samuel, "Your days will come to an end, and you will die. At that time I will make one of your sons the next king. He will build a temple for me, I will make his kingdom strong forever." (2 Samuel 7:12-13)

Jesus fulfilled these prophecies and the many others that mention the line from which the Messiah would come...What struck me as new was Joseph's role in fulfilling this prophecy and cementing the character of our God through this fulfillment.

Joseph had planned to divorce Mary quietly when he learned of her pregnancy until an angel of the Lord came to him in a dream and said, "Joseph, descendant of David, don't be afraid to take Mary as your wife. The baby in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son. You will name the son Jesus. Give him that name because he will save his people from their sins." Matthew goes on to write, "all this happened to make clear the full meaning of what the Lord had said through the prophet.  The virgin will be pregnant. She will have a son and they will name him Immanuel. This name means, 'God is with us.' When Joseph woke up, he did what the Lord's angel had told him to do. Joseph married Mary. But he did not have sexual relations with her until she gave birth to the son. And Joseph named the son Jesus." (Matthew 1:20-25)

Just writing these words makes my heart flutter with excitement...I just cannot believe I never saw it before!

Jesus was adopted!

It was planned this way. Ordained by the Alpha and Omega...the One who sees all time and knows all things.

We know that orphans are near to the heart of God...we know that we are called to serve the orphans and care for them (James 1:27)...we know that we are adopted into God's family through the spirit of sonship (Romans 8:14-17)...but all of this was first made evident in the fulfillment of the prophecy of Jesus being born into the line of David.

When the angel spoke to Joseph, he was addressed as "Son of David."
In Luke, we are told, "Joseph left Nazareth, a town in Galilee. He went to the town of Bethlehem in Judea. This town was known as the the town of David. Joseph went there because he was from the family of David." (Luke 2:4-5)

We never learn of Mary's lineage. Of course, this could be cultural or it could be understood that she, too, was from the line of David because many of the tribes of Israel married within their own tribe. But for me, I believe that this was not an omission but a purposeful attribute to prophetic fulfillment.

In order for Jesus' birth to fulfill prophecy, he had to be born in the line of David. But in accordance to the character of God, he fulfilled this prophecy through adoption!

God did the impossible in bringing his own son to be born by virgin birth. And then he added careful, deliberation by fulfilling the prophecy through Joseph.

I love this for so many reasons.
1. Neither Mary nor Joseph created Jesus. However, if Mary would have been the one that was noted as being from the line of David then people would miss the beauty of adoption in this story. If they would not have abstained from having sex than the purity of Jesus' birth would have been tainted. Jesus is fully God.
2. God is the ultimate example. He asks us to embrace adoption and he models this through Mary and Joseph and the adoption of his own son, Jesus.
3. Adoption is proven to be God's heart. Adoption is so counter our flesh, like most things of the spirit. The acceptance of adoption within cultures ebbs and flows depending on time and location...however, God's love for adoption and view of adoption as covenant, or contract between God and his people, is made so obvious through Jesus and is eternal.

He loves us.
Everything God does and has done and will do is intentional.
My love for God has been deepened this year and although my heart has hurt in ways that I wish I could forget, knowing that God loves me enough to bind the past to the present to the future in such deliberate ways makes me trust him with my past, present, and future.

If He can do this, than certainly he has my life covered.
I'll trust him. :)